Monorail

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein is a new monorail with plural bearing surfaces, one of which serves to guide and to support suspension (top supported or &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;below rail&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;) railway vehicles and another which serves to guide and to support upright (bottom supported or &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;above rail&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;) railway vehicles, all of which vehicles are powered by electrolinear motors energized through secondaries forming part of the new monorail.

United States Patent 1191 Becker et a1.

1451 Sept. 25, 1973 MONORAIL [75] Inventors: Klaus Becker; Hartwig Sprung, both of Wetter, Germany [73] Assignee: Demag Aktiengesellschaft, Duisburg,

Germany [22] Filed: Dec. 20, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 210,052

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 14, 1971 Germany P 21 01 485.7

[52] US. Cl 104/89, 104/118, 104/148 LM [51] Int. Cl B6lb3/00 [58] Field of Search 191/22, 29 K;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 879,750 2/1908 Dippel 104/124 3,319,580 5/1967 Bohm 104/118 3,650,216 3/1972 Broome 104/130 X 3,516,361 6/1970 Hart 104/148 LM 3,626,858 12/1971 C0l1ing.... 104/148 LM 3,673,966 7/1972 Wilson 191/29 R Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-D. W. Keen Attorney-Hubert T. Mandeville et a].

[5 7] ABSTRACT Disclosed herein is a new monorail with plural bearing surfaces, one of which serves to guide and to support suspension (top supported or below rail) railway vehicles and another which serves to guide and to support upright (bottom supported or above rail) railway vehicles, all of which vehicles are powered by electrolinear motors energized through secondaries forming part of the new monorail.

.7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures MONORAIL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTIONG An object of the invention is to develop a monorail in which the vehicle carrying capacity is doubled by permitting simultaneous use of the monorail in two directions, even in branching line areas, by railway vehicles driven separately with quick starting and high'stopping power by electrolinear motors. This is achieved by adding to the sides of the top and bottom of the rail horizontal secondaries for the electrolinear motors of the upright and suspension railway vehicles. This has been effected by adding bearing surfaces to a suspension monorail for additional use of the rail by upright (above rail or bottom supported) railway vehicles; The increased load'on the new rail caused by carryingboth upright and suspension vehicles does not require a substantial material increase, although the capacity of a single rail assembly may be doubled due to the simultaneous use of this assembly by upright and suspension vehicles. The arrangement of secondaries on both sides of the rail permit the crossing of branching lines, whereby one linear motor always contacts a secondary. The driving of the vehicles with electrolinear motors allows quick starts and stops of the vehicles even if they are equipped with wheels prone to sliding on the'rail, for example, steel wheels.

As will be understood, by making double use of a single rail profile, only one rail is necessary, even-for traftie in both directions. Thus, for railways intended for upper bearing surfaces and stabilizing rails for the upright vehicles forming an upper flight extending transversely outwardly of the vertical members of the box web profile. The bearing surfaces or flange tracks for the wheels of upright and suspension vehicles may be externally attached to the vertical members of the box web profile and may be either angular profiles or strong flat profiles. This simple expedient allows the contruction of a monorail profile which meets the required functions of support and guidance.

Other details of the invention provide the top and bottom portions of the new rail with secondary parts for the electrolinear motors of supported upright and suspension railway vehicles. The stabilizing rails may serve as electrical contacts which are arranged preferably on both sides of the vertical rail axis in order to assure uninterrupted motor energization and motion in the area of branching lines. In these branching line areas, there may be separate guide rails for auxiliary wheels of upright and suspension railway vehicles, which auxiliary wheels are arranged in such a manner that they may be moved crosswise on their axis, so that one of the auxiliary wheels takes over the guidance in the desired direction.

According to another detail of the invention, the new rail is reinforced with brackets attached to its sides be tween the upper and lower bearing surfaces, which bracketsdo not hinder the passage of upright and suspension railway vehicles. These brackets may be fastened to stable structures or supports, such as posts, columns, towers, etc. In order to avoid warping, both sides of the rail may be provided with brackets for separate supports.

A typical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational, schematic view of one section of a rail assembly with upright and suspension transportation of people in cities, the environment will not be affected as much as it would be with two rails running side by side. Moreover, side-by-side rails cannot readily bend around narrow street corners due to the fact that the curve of the inner railcannot be inferior to the restricted curve radii.

A rail assembly constructed according to the principles of the present invention may be employed in such 7 a way that upright and suspension railway vehicles are run in the same direction, for example, during rush hours. t

The bearing surfaces or flange tracks for suspension and upright vehicles are preferably superimposed, in accordance with the invention. Furthermore, the invention contemplates the employment of the secondaries as stabilizing rails or flanges (auxiliary to the bearing surfaces of upright and suspension railway vehicles) for the prevention of tilting and swinging of the vehicles in cross winds and in traversing curves.

The profile of the new rail includes a generally vertically elongated box-shaped web profile; lower bearing surfaces for the wheels of the suspension railway vehicles and lower stabilizing rails forming a lower flight extending transversely outwardly of the mainly vertical members of the box web profile, and corresponding vehicles traveling thereon in opposite directions; and

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view of a rail embodying the principles of the invention with indications of upright and suspension railway vehicle carriages mounted thereon.

Referring now to FIG. 1, in the elevated new monorail, a plurality of upright vehicles A move to the left and a plurality of suspension vehicles B travel to the right. The distance between the vehicles may vary since each vehicle advantageoulsy is self-propelled. The new rail is attached to the support C by means of laterally extending brackets 12, as will be understood and as illustrated in FIG. 2.

The box-shaped new monorail is formed mainly by vertical web members 1, upper flights 2a, 2b, and upper inverted U-profile 3a, 3b; lower flight 4a, 4b, and lower U-profile 5a, 5b. The upper flight or flange track 2a, as well as the lower flight or flange track 4a extend outwardly from members 1, and their extensions form bearing surfaces 20 and 4c for the wheels 6 of the upright and suspension vehicles A and B. The angular Y downtumed ends of upper and lower flights 2a, 2b; 4a,

4b form guide rails 2d and 4d for the wheels 6. By means of stabilizing rails or auxiliary flanges 7, 7a and stabilizing wheels 8, 8a, the vehicles are protected against tilting.

In areas of branching lines, guide rails 9 for auxiliary wheels 10 are arranged adjacent the bearing surfaces 2c and 4c. The auxiliary wheels are movable crosswise drives for said railway vehicles; on their axis with wheels 6. The elements 11, indicated i. bracket means extending outwardly from said web in phantom, are usually provided only in the branching between said upper and lower flights for supporting are ;said monorail in an elevated position without inter- At the side of the new monorail, at the elevation of 5 f i with th travel of top and bottom supported the wheels 6, sliding contact surfaces 13 are provided hi l therealong. ensurmg current p y Current P p 14 t0 the 2. A monorail according to claim 1, further characelectrohnear motors 15 which are attached to the upterized i that fight P railway Vehicles and which work a. said upper and lower bearing surfaces have shalin con unction with the secondary parts attached to or low, inverted U shaped Cross Sections formed by stabilizing ra ls or auxiliary flanges 7 and 7a. 3. A monorail according to claim 1, f th charac The current pickups gliding along the sliding lines 13 terized in that are connected with the vehicles through conductor Said hollow web has a height in cross Section v a i dz stantially greater than its width in cross section to e 6 provide said web with a generally l-shaped appear- I. A monorail adapted to support for propulsion therealong both top supported and bottom supported, wheeled, electrolinear motor-driven railway vehicles, said monorail comprising a. a hollow, elongated web of generally rectilinear cross section;

b. an upper flight including an upper bearing surface for supporting the wheels of bottom supported vehicles;

c. said upper bearing surface being an upper horizontal flange means extending bilaterally outwardly of upper portions of said web;

d. a lower flight including a lower bearing surface for supporting the wheels of top supported vehicles;

ance. 4. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said bearing surfaces are of greater width than said stabilizing flange means. 5. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said bracket means extends from both sides of said web. 6. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said hollow web comprises two vertical side walls, an upper horizontal wall, and'a lower horizontal e. said lower bearing surface being a lower horizontal wall;

flange means extending bilaterally outwardly of th b. said side walls are intersected and reinforced by lower portions f aid w b; said upper and lower flange means, to provide said f. an upper stabilizing flange means extending bilater- Web With a Cross-Sectional profile including three ally outwardly of said web and being disposed Superimposed rectangles. above and parallel with said upper bearing surface; 7. A monorail according to claim 1, further characg. a lower stabilizing flange means disposed below terized in that and being parallel with said lower bearing surface; a. said stabilizing flange means are connected dih. said stabilizing flange means being adapted to rectly to said upper and lower web walls.

function as secondaries of electrolinear motor 

1. A monorail adapted to support for propulsion therealong both top supported and bottom supported, wheeled, electrolinear motordriven railway vehicles, said monorail comprising a. a hollow, elongated web of generally rectilinear cross section; b. an upper flight including an upper bearing surface for supporting the wheels of bottom supported vehicles; c. said upper bearing surface being an upper horizontal flange means extending bilaterally outwardly of upper portions of said web; d. a lower flight including a lower bearing surface for supporting the wheels of top supported vehicles; e. said lower bearing surface being a lower horizontal flange means extending bilaterally outwardly of the lower portions of said web; f. an upper stabilizing flange means extending bilaterally outwardly of said web and being disposed above and parallel with said upper bearing surface; g. a lower stabilizing flange means disposed below and being parallel with said lower bearing surface; h. said stabilizing flange means being adapted to function as secondaries of electrolinear motor drives for said railway vehicles; i. bracket means extending outwardly from said web between said upper and lower flights for supporting said monorail in an elevated position without interfering with the travel of top and bottom supported vehicles therealong.
 2. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said upper and lower bearing surfaces have shallow, inverted U-shaped cross sections.
 3. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said hollow web has a height in cross section substantially greater than its width in cross section to provide said web with a generally I-shaped appearance.
 4. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said bearing surfaces are of greater width than said stabilizing flange means.
 5. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said bracket means extends from both sides of said web.
 6. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said hollow web comprises two vertical side walls, an upper horizontal wall, and a lower horizontal wall; b. said side walls are intersected and reinforced by said upper and lower flange means, to provide said web with a cross-sectional profile including three superimposed rectangles.
 7. A monorail according to claim 1, further characterized in that a. said stabilizing flange means are connected directly to said upper and lower web walls. 